Understanding the Application Compatibility Challenge

Applies To: Windows 7

Microsoft continued to evolve the browser with each new release and now provides Internet Explorer 8 as the default browser in Windows 7. Internet Explorer 8 introduces numerous feature improvements, including an enhanced platform architecture that is designed to make the web safer and faster for end users, easier to configure and manage for IT Professionals, and to create innovative content for web developers. Some of these enhanced features needed entirely new rendering and scripting engines based on standards – the core elements used by Internet Explorer to display HTML/CSS content and script execution. It is this combination of architectural changes and platform enhancements based on standards that introduces application compatibility issues customers may experience when migrating to Internet Explorer 8 from an older browser.

While Microsoft has worked hard to integrate backwards compatibility directly into the Internet Explorer 8 browser, there are some strategic design changes, web standards support, and security features which may require web applications built for Internet Explorer 6 or older to be upgraded in your organization.